There are things that I will think about, that I have been a part of because I was the head coach at UCLA, that I will always cherish. I grew up loving this program as a kid.
— Ben Howland
I just like to win.
That's why I'm here at UCLA - to help them win a national championship.
At UCLA, there will always be high expectations. That's why you want to play here or coach here.
I love to visit New York, but Los Angeles, to me, is a great city.
That's AAU ball. That's what you do: 'I want to get out there first and score.' You see it in games during the summer. There are not a lot of great blockouts going on.
You're not going to see Bill Walton or Kareem coming in every three years. Those days are over. That's what makes the job so difficult. But it's the dream job for anyone who has spent a career in coaching and has a sense of what UCLA means.
I'm a good coach. I do the right things for my players, and I try to support them; I try to help them almost to a fault.
I always think I put more pressure on myself than I feel from anywhere else.
For the most part, I've been very, very blessed and been lucky to have great kids. We want to recruit great kids, good people. For the most part, we've done that.
I had a relationship with John Wooden. I spoke at his memorial service.
Field-goal percentage is very important.
We've got to get everybody to sacrifice, be on same page, be a team.
I have a strong belief in God.
Thing about New York is it is so exciting with so much to do.
You should want to run if you're a player, shouldn't you, on offense?
If you went and did a microscopic investigative report at Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Carolina, Indiana - what are you talking about? You're always going to have some stuff come out that will be looked upon as not being good.
I'm a good person and a good guy.
I don't know where people got that I didn't have a good relationship with my players. I'm demanding, yes; I'm on their butt. I expect 100%, but they all knew I loved them, I cared for them, and I'll always be there for them.
The Reeves Nelson debacle, that hurt me. There are certain things regarding him that I couldn't say then and still can't. But I should have pulled the plug on him after his sophomore year. We tried to make it work, but we couldn't make it happen.
Putting your feet in ice cold water? That's not fun.
You have more control of things if you play defense. And you can control how you play defense, too, with effort and preparation.
We need to play tough defense and have a sound offense. But mostly, we have to outrebound the other team.
Winning, to me, is relief; losing is like dying. It's gut-wrenching.
Las Vegas is a big draw. There are a lot things to do there other than basketball.
I watch a lot of games and analyze a lot.
Tweeting - let's be honest: it's like I'm the center of the universe; it's all about me. Everybody is listening to my every thought, and my current thought at this very moment is... it's ridiculous.
This is UCLA. The expectations are higher here than anywhere. The amount of success both in terms of championships and wins as well as success off the floor has been second to none in college basketball. I knew that when I took this job. I know the expectation level, and no one has higher expectations than I do.
There's no question that I've made mistakes along the way when you look at recruiting in terms of evaluations of players or character in an instance or two.
I know I'm a really good coach.
